The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on punched cards and at providing peripheral services for larger computers. [1]

A more affordable, smaller machine with advanced technology became a mainframe for the masses

Feb 19, 2015 · The 1401 was a “stored program computer,” allowing programmers to write (and share) applications loaded into the machine from punched cards or magnetic tape, all without the need to physically reconfigure the machine for each task.

The 1401 was a decimal (not binary) computer, with variable-length words composed of 8-bit bytes containing 6-bit BCD (binary coded decimal) characters (plus parity and wordmark bits), and was intended primarily for business applications (its scientific counterpart was the 1620).

The IBM 1400 series are second-generation (transistor) mid-range business decimal computers that IBM marketed in the early 1960s. The computers were offered to replace tabulating machines like the IBM 407.

The IBM 1401 “Data Processing System”, introduced in October 1959, was the “Model-T Ford of the computer industry” 1 and “one of the most important and successful products IBM had ever announced.” 2 About 15,000 1401-family computers were manufactured and delivered worldwide in the 1960’s, 3 far exceeding initial expectations.

Announced in 1959, it was one of IBM’s earliest transistor-ized computers. The IBM 1401 tran-sitioned thousands of businesses and institutions to stored-program computing, and its tape- and disk-oriented systems freed users from the decades-long practice of …

Although the IBM 1401 Data Processing System was not the earliest solid-state commercial computer, it rapidly became the world s most widely used and held that distinction through most of the 1960s [Figure 5].

Travel back in time to 1959 and experience the sights and sounds of a business computer center. This exhibit re-creates a working medium-size computer operation from the 1960s, including working keypunches, printers, card readers, sorters and tape drives.

The IBM 1401 was a variable wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing electromechanical unit record equipment for processing data stored on punched cards.